But what do they have to gain in trying to have the Jersey Shore destroyed? How will Al Gore make any money from that? Do they have some sort of evil motive? Or is it just plain ignorance?

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt after an e-mail I just got in which the club comes out against a proposal to build a sea wall in Seaside Heights.

This must be pure ignorance.

In the e-mail (printed below), the club's Jeff Tittel proves he is absolutely clueless about how waves actually work. Ocean County suffered severe flooding in the hurricane because the ocean broke through the beach in numerous places. What all of these places have in common was that they were not protected by sea walls.

Those of us who live by the ocean and see it up close every day understand the value of sea walls. Every local I know supports building more of them. The reason is obvious: If you have a sea wall, the ocean can’t break through to the bay. And if the ocean can’t break through to the bay, inland areas such as Brick and Toms River will never again suffer the sort of flooding seen in Hurricane Sandy.

Let’s examine the e-mail, beginning with the assertion that “A sea wall in Seaside will not work.”

We’ve just seen what happened in Seaside Heights without a sea wall. The ocean came up and destroyed the boardwalk. Now imagine a big wall of rocks had been between the ocean and the structures.

Would more water have gotten through? Or less? Only someone completely ignorant of the ocean could argue the sea wall would have caused more flooding.

Then there's this:

“A sea wall will increase beach erosion because the water will push against the wall forcing sand downward and to erode faster.”

I’ve seen this remark repeated quite often. It may be the dumbest idea I've ever heard uttered. As I've noted before, saying a sea wall causes erosion is like saying a baseball backstop causes wild pitches

Every time I hear this sort of thing, it's from someone who has never actually seen the Shore up close, as I have in my 44 years of surfing there.

A properly designed sea wall, like the one in Bay Head, cannot possibly cause erosion for the simple reason that it is placed far back from the shore line. The ocean never comes anywhere near it 99.99 percent of the time. And if the ocean water isn't reaching the sea wall, then just what is the magic process through which the sea wall causes erosion?

The Sierra Club doesn't say.

It’s only when a major storm hits that a sea wall is ever touched by the waves. And at that point the waves do not create erosion. They prevent it. They keep the sand on the ocean side of the wall, where it forms the sand bars we surfers love so much. Eventually the sand migrates back to beach.

Now let’s look at what happens where there is no sea wall. That is the case in Mantoloking, which is just a bit south of Bay Head. Without a sea wall, the ocean broke through in two spots and caused the beach to erode completely. Much sand was moved into Barnegat Bay. That is sand that could have been saved by a sea wall. Now it's gone forever.

Next clueless comment:

“Flood walls provide a false sense of security and do not actually protect people from storm surges. Flood walls raise the level of the storm water creating more flooding as the water goes around the wall. The water will either go around the wall or flood the towns next to Seaside. Making this wall would also cause damage to piers and the boardwalk.”

One of the towns next to Seaside is Ortley Beach. It suffered major damage in this storm, again because the ocean broke through. A sea wall could have prevented that and should be built immediately. Ortley Beach has been suffering major erosion for years. Adding more sand would be nice for aesthetic reasons. But we locals have noticed something the Sierra Club hasn't: A giant boulder is a lot harder to move than a grain of sand.

And just how the heck could a sea wall cause damage to a boardwalk that is behind the sea wall? Doesn’t Tittel realize that waves come from the ocean in to shore, not the other way around?

More cluelessness comes when he suggests “Buyouts for building that continuously flood. Put in place a program to encourage families and businesses in flood prone areas to take buyouts and relocate.”

Obviously, once you build the sea wall there will no longer be any places that continuously flood, at least not along the ocean front.

But if you were to buy up those lots and leave those spots exposed to the open ocean, you would risk future breaches. That's especially true in a place like Ortley, which is near the site of the old Cranberry Inlet.

If you permitted another breach there then you would risk having the ocean flood into the bay again. That would mean a repeat of the damage from Sandy. And that can never again be permitted to happen.

So there's no reason to buy out any homeowners. We could built a sea wall along the entire cost of a tiny fraction of the cost of buying those lots and raising all those houses in bayfront areas.

All of us who actually understand the ocean share that view. As for the views of the inland sorts who are clueless about the ocean, read the e-mail below. Feel free to ignore the lame attempts to make jokes about that MTV reality show.

At least those inland geeks don't try to tell us how to run our lives.

Here goes:

Seaside Heights has announced plans to install a sea wall, financed by MTV. Putting a sea wall at the beach in seaside heights will actually do more harm than good. It will raise flood levels and the water will go around. Instead of coming up with a comprehensive plan to deal with flooding, the sea wall will create more problems. The wall could raise the water level with the water going around the walls or being pushed into neighboring communities.

“A sea wall in Seaside will not work; it just furthers the Jersey joke. Comparing sea walls to using dunes is like comparing the show Jersey Shore to Downton Abbey. This project will cause more beach erosion and is environmentally damaging. This is the unreality show- the next reality show will be the next flood destroying Seaside Heights,” said Jeff Tittel, Director, NJ Sierra Club.

Flood walls provide a false sense of security and do not actually protect people from storm surges. Flood walls raise the level of the storm water creating more flooding as the water goes around the wall. The water will either go around the wall or flood the towns next to Seaside. Making this wall would also cause damage to piers and the boardwalk.

“It would be like the Maginot wall the French build and the Germans went around the wall to capture Paris. It will be the same thing here, the flood water will just go around and come through Ortley beach or Seaside Park or over the top,” said Jeff Tittel.

A sea wall will increase beach erosion because the water will push against the wall forcing sand downward and to erode faster.

Seaside never built dunes; this approach would work better environmentally and to prevent flooding impacts. Restoring natural systems protects property and is environmentally beneficial.

In order to deal with storms there needs to be an overall comprehensive approach including the need to elevate structures and move them back from the water’s edge. Restoring natural features like stream buffers. Also do regional storm water planning and develop new flood storage areas. Do not over develop in flood pone areas. There are other alternatives for Seaside other than building a flood wall including:

Limit Development in Flood Plains. Building in flood plains creates more flooding and puts more people’s lives and properties at risk. The increase in impervious cover eliminates recharge areas and therefore stricter limits on new development in flood plains should be immediately imposed. There should be zero net fill and no new structures in flood plains.

Buyouts for building that continuously flood. Put in place a program to encourage families and businesses in flood prone areas to take buyouts and relocate. This will save the homeowner’s and business owner’s money as well as the public whose money is funding the Sandy Relief.

Prevention on climate change. Need to put in place policies that will combat climate change an reduce our green house gas emissions. New buildings should be built in a sustainable way including energy efficiency, green building techniques, and renewable energy.

“In order to rebuild our shore we have to do it better and smarter. In order to do things right we need to follow the laws of gravity like Isaac Newton, not Snooki,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.